The 11 year old boy depicted on the window is laying on the ground of
the Texas desert. Heat stroke and thirsty. His ill mother is back home
in Guatemala praying for his safe passage. He is on a journey with hopes
to provide money for his mother’s medicine. But he won’t get up. He
will pass to the other realm, the spirit world. His body won’t be found
for weeks. The Tierra Firme & Waterbound collaboration
explores the border, water, migration and border communities. Water jugs
are left on migration routes along the border. These water jugs are
often left with encouraging messages for the harsh journey migrants
often face. Unfortunately there are also Border Patrol agents and
private groups that sabotage these jugs by puncturing them,
contaminating the water or removing them because they don't feel these
people have the basic human right to access clean water. Many migrants
die from thirst or other problems from the conditions they face on their
journey. This installation is not only an homenaje (homage) to those who have lost their lives in search of a better one, but also an ofrenda (prayer/offering)
for other migrants safe passage. The hand-made net challenges the idea
of what borders are. The border divides but it also breaths and moves.
Many people, communities and cultures get tangled in that net to give
rise to something different. The Tierra Firme & Waterbound Collaboration is an attempt to understand the border and the broader cultural implications of the communities they affect.

_

Waterbound // Zeke Peña

Waterbound is and on-going transmedia project that explores the symbolic and actual role water plays in our border community. Water affects every aspect of our lives: naturally, practically, ritually/spiritually, and geopolitically.We need it to survive. The Rio Bravo/Grande is the primary source of life for our border community, it unites us. But unfortunately our border community has come to understand the river as something that divide us. The U.S. side and the Mexican side. Something that naturally brings us together is being used to divide us through the effects of militarization and commodification. www.zpvisual.com/waterboundTwitter/Instagram: @zpvisual

Tierra Firme// Analise Minjarez & Sarita Westrup

Tierra Firme is an experiential research project that revolves around the place and identity of artwork along the Texas-Mexico border. Fiber artists Analise
Minjarez and Sarita Westrup, utilize the net as a symbol for the sky
and stars shared between two countries. The tension necessary to create
the knots of a net comment on the social strain between people living on
separated land. In addition, the net although perceived as a barrier,
provides portholes to either side of the border.